DC rabbi accused of taping nude women pleads guilty

Barry Freundel admits to 52 counts of voyeurism; sentencing hearing set for May 15

By AP and ToI Staff 19 February 2015, 10:15 pm Edit

Rabbi Barry Freundel, former spiritual leader of Kesher Israel (YouTube/Kesher Israel, screen capture)

A lawyer for the Washington, DC, rabbi accused of videotaping women during preparations for the Jewish ritual bath said his client pleaded guilty to more than 50 counts of voyeurism.

Barry Freundel entered the guilty plea to 52 counts Thursday in a Washington court, his lawyer Jeffrey Harris said.

Freundel is currently charged with videotaping six women, but prosecutors told a closed-door meeting of victims last week that he had taped more than 150 women, though the statute of limitations bars them from charging him over many of the tapings.

Police arrested and charged the rabbi in October for secretly filming women while they used the ritual immersion bath, or mikvah, adjacent to Washington’s Kesher Israel synagogue, where he was a rabbi for 25 years.

Freundel was arrested after a witness allegedly saw him installing a clock radio with a hidden camera in the women’s showers of the mikvah.

His sentencing hearing is set for May 15.